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Even 10 pence would be a bargain.
net cash 9.9m
profit 1.6m
MC 7m
looks like a great covid recovery play
Lovely results
Doh
https://masterinvestor.co.uk/equities/small-cap-round-up-pizzas-materials-and-information/amp/
Maybe not a leak then, just further proof, if needed, that COM can't service much demand without driving the price up.
Recent results from Fulham Shore, commented on below by Mark Watson-Mitchell from Master Investor, show that a company operating similar units, albeit four times the size and with a defined expansion program, has a market cap of £105m
IF the same metrics were applied pro rata, we would be looking at a minimum of 25p per share here.
Only difference being Fulham Shore shareholders enjoy a communicative relationship with their board of directors and brokers.
Any way up it shows we are absurdly undervalued.
They've got until the end of June to publish the annual accounts. I suspect something is coming soon given the sudden burst in trading. Not a great deal of communication from the Co in general.
I was literally just about to post the question you may possibly have answered before I asked it :)
25% rise has got to mean something but no news out there. When are the accounts due to be published?
Good set of accounts en route?
No reply from the company so far on my email to them. I did manage a small topup last week.
Hi Bobby. I am looking for strategic update re new openings. Stanstead Airport restaurant should be open soon according to news sources. I read somewhere there were 5 in the pipeline for 21/22. 3.5m spent on new opening costs in h1. Is this all related to Stanstead? I am surprised these are not capitalised. Revenue needs to be back to pre covid levels. A continuing focus on cost reduction. I think cash may be much reduced from h1 balance. Trade payables hit 9m these are short term liabilities and would likely have been settled by now. Its good to hear a glowing review from your last visit.
On a side note, I ate there today. Menu has been expanded with some good new options (I tried one which was very nice). Food was tasty as per usual and service was very good. Staff generally always seem to be pleased to be working there. On the business, I have no idea whether this was a wise or unwise investment decision, only time will tell. Worth 6m with over 9m cash at last count - do we think cash has been burnt down? They are generally cash flow positive (most of losses during previous years seem to have new restaurant openings and set ups as a big factor, which are then adjusted out in the aEBITDA).
Bermondsey,
I would imagine they are imminent. Results announced early June the last two (COVID affected) years but were out on April 9th 2019, the last non COVID affected year.
Having said that ... could still easily be another 2 months off.
I'm more interested in any year to date trading update and any expansion plans.
Expecting decent numbers and a still solid balance sheet.
Would be nice if the BOD had more to say for themselves but that doesn't seem to be their style.
I asked the company when they intend to release the annual accounts yesterday. No reply yet
Promising noises from Tasty and Everyman too. Consumer spend in Feb shows a rise in eating out spend.
Then the reverse today, £800 sell takes nearly 2% off the market cap.
Restaurant group reported full year results today (Wagga's, Frankie & Bennies, Chiquito) up 40%. Report below.The Restaurant Group [LON:RTN] has published full year results this morning, with sales up by around 40%. Obviously this has been driven heavily by COVID lockdowns, but more accurate pre-Covid comparisons show like for like sales increasing in all divisions except concessions, which remains constrained as a result of depressed air travel numbers. The company notes that again its outperformance has continued in the early part of 2022.
All looks healthy.
Bobby
Agree completely re the free float & working both ways. £5k buy this morning has put 2% on the market cap which is daft. Would love a trading update.
I have added here and there, but I am also wary because the share has not performed. I think this is mainly due to poor liquidity (generally within small caps and specifically for this share due to small free float) and low volumes, as well as absent communication from the company. However, all noises appear to be positive, it just depends on how their trading financials look. I do wish there was a plan for the director to reduce his share holding without crashing the price or dilution.
The small free float works both ways. I think based on pre-covid financials this should be worth multiples of current levels.
Wow, an actual conversation on the Com BB! Yes, great find.
I've been adding the last few weeks trying to a) get my average down, and b) be in front of the curve when results (or heaven forbid) a trading update, are announced. Very confident that we'll see the SP head North of last year's high. The market cap can not be sustained at this low level through any kind of normal trading and if there is any kind of expansion programme! Boom, off to the races.
Note that it looks as if the last two years finals have been Covid delayed, expecting them earlier this year. Keep the faith.
Good find. This is a brand new restaurant as well rather than just a reopening since covid hit. Comptoire would do well to share expansion progress with the markets via rns.
https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/new-shops-bars-and-restaurants-to-open-at-stansted
https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/images-of-the-day-comptoir-libanais-and-hmshost-hail-reopening-at-dxb/
Worth an rns.
Originally opened just before the pandemic hit so never got the chance to properly get going.
I imagine there would be high rents for such a premium location .
Bobbyaxelrod. Good analysis of comptoire peers. I jumped in here looking for a covid recovery play I didn't cash out on the rise because I came to the same conclusion re scope for expansion, plenty of room. I didnt appreciate how few Lebanese restaurants there are in the UK.
Hope the following is useful.
The IFRS accounting with the leases and right-of-use assets makes their balance sheet much worse, but yes they have implied their position when negotiating with landlords is strong, and said they have renegotiated a lot of leases onto lower rents/turnover based rents and exited other leases. I think when you excluded the lease related items their balance sheet is not in bad shape. Looking at their market cap of 6.75m: at the last interims 9.1m cash (with a 2.7m increase in payables) and 7.4m PPE against 3m in borrowings.
I would be interested in them expanding via franchises too, although we do not know the exact terms of these, I'd imagine the cost control side of things is more efficiently managed by an appropriately motivated franchisee. Comptoir Group already have a centralised facility from which to service their franchises. This solves the structural problem with the restaurant industry of costs rising (e.g. staffing) when times are good, then subsequently being too high when times are bad.
For the 5 years 2016-2020 they had an average adjusted EBITDA of £3m per year. I usually don't like seeing "aEBITDA", but I think their definition of it is somewhat fair, and closely matches their operating cash flows. Even a 10x multiple assuming no growth would give a market cap of £30m, or nearly 5x today.
For some perspective on the possible growth:
Nandos 450 restaurants in the UK, Toby Carvery 150, Miller & Carter >100, Bill’s 78, TGI Fridays 80, Wagamama 149, Slug and Lettuce 70, Harvester 220, Zizzi 130, Prezzo 207. Nandos makes a £40m loss on £1bn revenue. Wagamama bought for £560m; they have 6x the number of Comptoir Group restaurants, 560/6=£93m, then you can further discount the £93m to allow for stronger Wagamama brand and you still end up way north of £6.75m current market cap. There is around 160 total Lebanese restaurants in the UK at present.
Also, the Kaye family is behind Prezzo, Ask and Zizzi and invested £4.7m in the Comptoir Group IPO (around 10% of company). Jonathan Kaye was founder and CEO of Prezzo and listed in 2002 at a market cap of £9.1m, later selling to PG capital in 2015 for £304m. He grew Prezzo 13 year period to over 207 restaurants (also included Chimichanga 39 units).
So, I think much of the poor performance is related to the poor liquidity (the shares are very tightly held with a small free float). I think the directors hold too much. For example in the last week there have been 6 days with almost no trade as far as I can see. Hopefully the poor liquidity works both ways and this ends up flying. The other restaurants like Restaurant Group, Fulham Sore, etc, have not performed as badly as Comptoir Group.
Most importantly, the food, general offering, atmosphere and culture in Comptoir is excellent.
Trading below cash balance in the interims. Admittedly trade payables did increase with the cash balance. What opportunities have come about due to covid/ cheap leases? Please no more central london restaurants for now the place is a ghost town. Focus on the cities and larger towns outside of the capital. Increasing revenue on takeaways is key to growing revenue. Maiden profit!
What are you thinking they will update? Seems stupidly undervalued, but low liquidity has worked against it. My holding gets especially hurt by the spread. I will probably do another review at some point - I felt confident when I looked at it deeply so chances are I will add. For 6m you get 20-30 restaurants, generating each over 1m turnover in normal year, with some cash. Most of their liabilities are lease related, which has hurt how the balance sheet looks. Just surprised that the value here has gone under looked (although I am willing to concede that I may be completely wrong here!)